Keynote

Phyllis Lambert

Canadien Centre for ArchitectureCanada

Architect, historian, activist and critic of architecture and urbanism, Phyllis Lambert is Founding Director Emeritus of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), which she created in Montreal in 1979. Lambert first made architectural history as the Director of Planning of the Seagram Building (1954-1958) in New York City. Actively engaged in the conservation and mise en valeur of heritage and the urban fabric, Phyllis Lambert founded Héritage Montréal in 1975; by 1979 she was instrumental in establishing the Société d'amélioration de Milton-Parc, the largest community of non-profit cooperative housing renovation project in Canada. For 23 years, Lambert served on the Board of the Vieux Port de Montréal, initiating public hearings and focusing on the integration of history and vitality of Montréalers.

Since 1996, Lambert has presided the Fonds d’Investissement de Montréal (FIM), a private investment fund with the mission of improving the housing conditions of low and medium-income households, and providing urban neighbourhoods with a new social and economic vitality. She is a participant in the revival of Montréal’s downtown west quarter through the Table de concertation du Quartier des grands jardins, which she initiated in 2005.

Phyllis Lambert holds honorary degrees from twenty-seven universities in North America and in Europe. She has received the highest civil honours in Canada as Companion of the Order of Canada and Grand Officier of the Ordre national du Québec. France has elevated her to Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and l’Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie has appointed her Chevalier of the Ordre de la Pléiade. She is Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and the Institute has awarded Lambert with its Gold Medal, the highest architectural distinction in Canada.

She received the Prix Gérard-Morisset of the Government of Québec (1994), the 2008 Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Urban Institute, and the Régis-Laurin Prize for outstanding contribution to the development of community housing (2017). Internationally, in 1997, Lambert received the World Monuments Fund’s Hadrian Award, and in 2014, Lambert was honored by Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 14th Architectural Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. In 2016, the Wolf Foundation in Israel awarded Lambert its Wolf Prize in Arts for the professional rigour she has brought to the field of architecture over six decades. During that same year, she received the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize 2016 Architecture Awards Architect, historian, activist and critic of architecture and urbanism, Phyllis Lambert is Founding Director Emeritus of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), which she created in Montreal in 1979.